Wear is the Love, Episode 23
This week it’s all about gun safety legislation, which is being voted on in the House. The Senate will also have its chance to have its say, but potentially not until next week. We discuss the possibilities, plus our views on President Biden’s surprise speech on the issue last Thursday. Let us know your thoughts!
Episode notes
President Biden’s speech transcript
The Top 5 articles for your week:
“Waiting at a Texas hospital for children who never arrive” (New Yorker)
Because this shorter essay from a doctor at one of the receiving hospitals near Uvalde is heart-wrenching. This line got to me, “At 12:17, my phone rang. It was Dr. Veronica Armijo-Garcia from the pediatric I.C.U. ‘This call just came in, and I don’t think it’s hit the news yet. We need to get ready for a pediatric mass casualty.’”
“What the Racist Massacre in Buffalo Stole From One Family” (NYT)
Because this is another heart-wrenching essay about the life of Celestine Chaney in Buffalo, someone who was at Tops Friendly Markets for small dessert cups that she needed for her beloved strawberry shortcake. “Memories, however, refuse to be buried. Her light pinches and offers of peppermints to win silence during church services. Her two-step and arm bob whenever “Uptown Funk” played. Just her voice.”
“The Uvalde Police Chose Dishonor” (The Atlantic)
Because another week, another recommendation for Liz Bruenig on Uvalde, this time on the failure of police to act during the shooting and the refusal of some of their leadership to cooperate since. “Society cannot demand courageous self-sacrifice; we can only ask for it. Most of us know we ourselves would be too frightened to face an armed gunman in a direct confrontation, and we accordingly choose to seek work that doesn’t put us in such positions—or shouldn’t. But perhaps even some of those who do volunteer for danger now lack the fortitude, the relevant virtues of courage, honor, and selflessness, to take up the task.” Phewwwww.
“Imaginology” (Aeon Magazine)
Because Stephen T. Asma, a professor of philosophy, is calling for a new way to organize how we learn, and it’s a daunting proposal — combining how we teach and learn science with how we teach and learn humanities. “Imagination Studies, or imaginology, also promises to reunite the body and the mind, reintegrate emotion and reason, and tesselate facts and values.”
“The Woes of Being Addicted to Streaming Services” (Pitchfork)
Because we’ve shared a lot over the years about the attention economy, and this article on the streaming service Spotify (a service where this podcast is listed!) and what it’s done to listeners (rather than artists) is an angle I haven’t heard before. “Four years ago, while the app’s algorithmic autoplay feature was on, I was served the Pavement song “Harness Your Hopes,” a wordy and melodic—and by all accounts obscure—B-side from the beloved indie band. As of this writing, the song has over 72 million streams, more than twice as much as their actual college rock hit from the ’90s, “Cut Your Hair,” the one Pavement song your average Gen X’er might actually recognize…Whereas many Pavement songs are oblique, rangy, and noisy, “Harness Your Hopes” is among the most pleasant and inoffensive songs in the band’s catalog. It is now, in the altered reality of Spotify, the quintessential Pavement song. When frontman Stephen Malkmus was asked about this anomaly, he sounded blithely defeated: ‘At this point we take what we can get, even in a debased form. Because what’s left?’”
Episode 23: Gun Reform